iOS 15 'iCloud Private Relay' Feature Won't Be Available in China, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and More

Alongside iOS 15, Apple introduced an iCloud+ service that adds new features to its paid ‌iCloud‌ plans. One of these features is ‌iCloud‌ Private Relay, which is designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it.

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Apple did not mention country limitations for the feature when announcing it, but Apple told Reuters that Private Relay will not be launching in China, Belarus, Colombia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and the Philippines,

According to Apple, regulatory reasons are preventing the Private Relay feature from launching in those countries.

Private Relay sends web traffic to a server that is maintained by Apple to strip the IP address. Once IP info has been removed, Apple sends the traffic to a second server maintained by a third-party company that assigns a temporary IP address and then sends the traffic to its destination, a process that prevents your IP address, location, and browsing activity from being used to create a profile about you.

Involving an outside party in the relay system is an intentional move that Apple says was designed to prevent anyone, including Apple, from knowing a user's identity and the website the user is visiting.

‌iCloud‌ Private Relay is available with any paid ‌iCloud‌ storage plan, and Apple has not changed pricing, so upgraded ‌iCloud‌ storage tiers start at $0.99. ‌iCloud‌+ also includes a new Hide My Email feature that lets you create unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal inbox, and it allows for ‌iCloud‌ Mail addresses to be personalized with a custom domain name.

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Tags: iCloud, Safari

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Top Rated Comments

hot-gril Avatar
53 months ago
That's how you know it's good.
Score: 75 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fwmireault Avatar
53 months ago
The list of excluded countries says it all
Score: 63 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kung gu Avatar
53 months ago

So brave Apple. Please lecture us more on your virtue while joining in on denying basic human rights in other countries.
Apple can't just enable things if governments stop them. Clearly Apple is not at fault here, blame the governments that ban this from becoming a reality in those countries.
Score: 48 Votes (Like | Disagree)
countryside Avatar
53 months ago
HA, shocker. It must be really effective.

I wonder why Apple didn't want to say it won't be available in China during WWDC? Too scared to admit they are an authoritarian regime that doesn't align with their privacy or human-rights values?
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BWhaler Avatar
53 months ago

So brave Apple. Please lecture us more on your virtue while joining in on denying basic human rights in other countries.
so it’s ok for companies to break laws as they see fit? Be careful what you wish for.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Techwatcher Avatar
53 months ago
Of course it's not available in China. No one is surprised at the nonsense of the CCP. Anyways... Apple is doing the right thing. Might not even need my 3rd party VPN anymore.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)